. >> no, no, governor romney, he's a good debater. i'm just okay. but what i'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing. >> a new nbc news "wall street journal" poll finds that nearly four in ten voters say that the upcoming debates will be either extremely or quite important to determining their vote for president. another 34% of voters polled say that the upcoming debates will be somewhat important to their votes, so the stakes are high tonight. president obama's lead in the nationwide polls is narrowing. meantime, romney has pulled even in florida. john harwood is in denver this morning and he will join us in just a few minutes with the other poll numbers and see just exactly how close it is. then we're going to try our own debates. at 6:30 eastern time, we have strategists from both sides of the aisle. democrat jimmy williams versus republican joe watkins. an hour later, former dnc chair and vermont governor howard dean is facing off against ed conard. irene rosenfeld, the ceo of mo